It is unfortunate when someone you have respected becomes a turncoat. I have read a couple of books by the economist, columnist and leader of the Work Foundation, Will Hutton.
He has in the recent past been highly critical of Thatcher and Blair. These books were well argued, coherent and meticulously researched. They were not simply polemic.
Sad then to see him licking Blair's arse in the Observer yesterday, quoting himself on television when a Murdoch employee did not dispute when Hutton claimed that Blair's economic formula was beginning to pay off (Huh?). A few things to say here:
1. I am suspicious of people who quote themselves - This is simply narcissism.
2. Since when does getting a Murdoch stooge to nod in agreement, bestow any sort of credibility?
3. I would have thought that Blair's economic policies are now more than ever - seen to be unravelling - or has Hutton lost touch with reality like most of his high-earning dinner friends?

Then he went on to spout about the government's 'right' to take proactive action against 'terrorism'. This contradicts what Hutton has written in the past. Has he not re-read Orwell recently? Blair's criminal activities in the Gulf are largely responsible for inflaming the muslim ultras, or the 'bad guys' as Bush would call them - as opposed to his 'good guys' in the white stetsons. Now Blair is hell-bent on introducing a police-state to a sleep-walking and largely politically ignorant public - witness the sales figures for boorish tabloids.

On the basis of this and recent pronouncements, you can expect to see Will Hutton's knighthood (if not peerage) being confirmed very shortly. There is more than one way of skinning a cat - or paying the ferryman.